Keeping It Fresh: Why Valuable Content Matters

May 13, 2014 |
By
Keely Brazil

Did you know that over 97% of consumers today research local businesses
online before making a shopping choice? This means that no matter how
well-established your company may be within your local community, failure
to maintain a thriving web presence could be shutting you off from a substantial
portion of your potential clientele. However, just setting up a basic
stand-alone website is not enough if you really want to reap the benefits
of your Internet marketing strategy.

The content of your website should be current and valuable if you wish
to optimize your online campaign. While many businesses today have recognized
the importance of maintaining a web home, only a select few regularly
update their sites with fresh, high-quality content. Consistently, these
are the websites that out-perform their competitors and obtain better
results for their business.

What does good content do for your website?

In order to achieve a high search engine ranking, it is important to keep
your website updated. As is often said, content truly is king. That is
for many reasons, but one of the most important is the fact that search
engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo award sites with fresh content
that readers find valuable. Improving your website's organic search
engine ranking puts you ahead of the competition.

What makes for good content?

Quality content fills a need. In addition to an informative and well-written
website, keeping a blog is an excellent way to promote your website's
freshness factor.

The following are important questions to ask yourself:

Am I offering pertinent, up-to-date information about my industry?

Does the content I offer contain information that people are searching for?

Is my content informative, well-organized, and useful?

Is the content "spammy?" It is useful or just promotional?

Would a reader be likely to describe the content as valuable and interesting?

Would someone searching for this information hit their browser's "back" button?

Is my content likely to provide the answers that consumers are looking for?

Is this page worth being shared across social media?

All of these elements constitute valuable content that will be recognized
by search engines and could make a substantial difference in your website's
organic search engine ranking and, by extension, the continued success
of your business.